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Heavy toll of AREVA’s uranium mining on Niger’s poor

Niger: French State-Owned Company ‘Poisoning’ Poor | Coalition Against Nuclear Energy, Julio Godoy, April 2010, Paris — Recent research by Greenpeace suggests that French state-owned company Areva’s public claims of decontamination of populated areas near uranium mines in Niger are false. High radio-activity persists in towns and rural areas near the mines, affecting some 80,000 people…

…Today, Niger is considered the poorest country in the world. It ranks last in the Human Development Index, and it is confronting a political crisis caused by allegations of corruption and environmental conflicts – all linked to the uranium mines ….high radioactivity can still be detected on the ground near the Nigerien uranium mines, especially in the mining towns of Arlit and Akokan, some 850 km northeast of the capital Niamey…………….

CRIIRAD also found radioactive contamination in drinking water and radio-active scrap metal in the mining towns.

The public health consequences of the exploitation of uranium are only one of the many problems raised by the extractive industry in Niger.

Alain Joseph, a French hydro-geologist working in the West African country, told IPS that the “pasture economy is about to disappear in north-eastern Niger because of the dozens of mine projects installed there which over-exploit the scarce water resources of the area”.

In 2009 alone, Niger authorised 139 uranium research projects conducted by companies from Australia, Canada and China.

Joseph said that these projects are draining water from Agadez, the region’s only water source. “The uranium exploitation is not only decimating Niger’s environment and public health. It is also about to destroy the economic foundations of Tuareg, Fula, Kounta and other pastoral, nomadic people in the north of the country,” he said.gainst Nuclear Energy

April 22, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Niger | antinuclear, AREVA, France, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radioactive, uranium